Food & human security: South East Asian perspectives

Abstract

Since about the last quarter of the 20th century, the international community has been drastically changing. The concept of human security has been around within the international system for at least a decade now, ever since it was coined in the 1994 UNDP Human Development Report, which described it as "freedom from fear and freedom from want". Since then, it has been adopted by a number of states, regional and international organizations. Despite all the interest in the concept, human security has not been adopted and mainstreamed. It has, ultimately, not been operationalized as it should have been. There is no single definition of human security, which may be a handicap given that definitions do count when consensus is sought for cooperation. While the definition of human security remains an open question, there is consensus among its advocates that there should be a shift of attention from a state centered to a people centered approach to security. Since 2002, debates on national military spending have been focused on the need to augment defense budgets so as to meet increasing risks and dangers on the global level. Globally, overall aid is still rising but is increasingly focused on traditional security needs. Will human security survive the revival of state and national security especially in South East Asia. The research will bring a new broader sense of Human Security in details to all South East Asian countries. As to many proponents, a human security approach is best fitted to situations of conflict, both to address conflict prevention and for rebuilding and reconstruction in post-conflict stages.